Entertainment

Barbeque by the blacktop

Every day, at about half past five, a thin, wiry man walks out of a small mosque that stands opposite where the Dharahara once stood. Uddab Alam, known popularly and affectionately as Sher Khan, carries with him a large red bucket, with charcoal, skewers and 10 kilos of buffalo meat. He sits down on a flat wooden stool and gets to work. Barbeque by the blacktop

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Alisha Sijapati

Published at : November 28, 2018

Updated at : November 28, 2018 09:13

Kathmandu

Now 65, Sher Khan says he has been selling buff sekuwas—marinated buffalo meat roasted on skewers above an open fire—for over 50 years, the third generation of his family to sell sekuwas in Kathmandu, Given the number of people stopping here,

it is obvious that the Muslim men selling sekuwas by the erstwhile Dharahara in Sundhara are beloved by their customers.

“This is the best and most reasonable sekuwa one can ever get,” says Bikash Bista, who has been coming all the way from Jawalakhel for the past two years just to eat here. “If you go to a restaurant, the same would cost you over Rs 200 but Sher

Khan’s sekuwa, at Rs 20, is completely worth it.”

There are seven to eight men here every evening, arriving just as the sun starts to set. They line up against the blue aluminium sheets that surround the Dharahara site and set up their make-shift barbeque stands, open fires and charcoal in tin cans emptied of their contents. Theirs is an ad hoc enterprise, a fly-by-night operation that appears at dusk and is gone in a few hours. Called the Raanga Company by locals, all of these men are from Bihar and they lodge near the Nepali Madani Masjid and Muslim Mussafirkhana paying Rs 2,000 a month for a bed. Selling sekuwas at Rs 20 a pop, they make nearly Rs 20,000 every month.

Every day, Sher Khan and the rest of the Raanga Company purchase around five kilos of buffalo meat at around 10 in the morning. The meat is marinated by hand in a mixture of oil, ginger, garlic, cumin, black pepper and powdered red pepper. Slow roasted on a spit over an open fire, the meat turns into a mouth-watering morsel that is crispy on the outside and juicy with flavour on the inside. Sher Khan’s sekuwas, especially, are a marvel of simplicity.

By 6:30 pm, the Raanga Company sees its peak in customers, as 50-60 folks every night flock to eat sekuwas out of paper wrappings, handfuls of muri—puffed rice—as accompaniment. Lured by the charming, voluble Sher Khan, most customers flock to him, leading him to worry if his ten kilos of meat will be enough to feed his horde of hungry men.

“I don’t mind that most go to Sher Khan,” says Mohammad Jaffar, another member of the Raanga Company. He claims he’s been selling sekuwas here for 35 years now. “Sher Khan is a pioneer,” he says.

Sher Khan’s third generation sekuwa stall, however, might just end with him. His son owns a butcher shop and refuses to give his father anything for free, says Sher Khan. But he doesn’t mind, he makes do on his own. He also doesn’t resent his son for refusing to follow in his footsteps. Even though Sher Khan might be the last in his family to sell sekuwas at Sundhara, there is the Raanga Company to keep this roadside delight ongoing.

Alisha Sijapati
Alisha Sijapati is a journalist who specializes in telling human-interest stories, delving into history and heritage, and highlighting artistic endeavors. Her previous work experience includes contributions to Nepali Times, The Kathmandu Post, and The Himalayan Times. As of 2021, she is also a co-founder of the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign.